Urgent News of the Past: 1953-55

Posted on May 03, 2004 by Brian O'Keefe in Urgent News of the Past

Stop fidgeting

Regarding the mind-numbingly boring lectures given during chapel periods at Gorham State, a Pinnacle editorial insisted that students should “sit up straight and pretend we are enjoying it.”

The article chastised students for slumping in their seats and working on homework during the deadly dull speeches, asking, “How would you like it if you saw someone writing and not paying attention to a talk that you had spent some time to prepare?”

“Nothing like a dame”

“Girls come in many varieties: blond, dark, red, fiery, passive, cerebral, bosom, lean, athletic, clinging, capable, highstrung, languorous.

Photos from the 1950s

Posted on May 03, 2004 by Brian O'Keefe in Urgent News of the Past

Urgent news of the past: 1937

Posted on April 26, 2004 by Brian O'Keefe in Urgent News of the Past

It was the middle of the Great Depression in America and World War II was looming ahead. Yet the mood was light at Portland Junior College, a forebear of USM, judging by the 1937 edition of its student newspaper. The award-winning Portland Junior College News began publication that year as a four-page biweekly.

1937: “Puns, Jokes, Cracks”

Posted on April 26, 2004 by Brian O'Keefe in Urgent News of the Past

Anecdotes:

Jimmy and Shirley

It so happened that Jimmy Jordan and Shirley Mewer were walking along a dark country road returning from a scavenger hunt. And Jimmy was loaded down with an automobile tire, a bulldog on a string, a rooster and an old brass kettle.

Advertisements from 1937

Posted on April 26, 2004 by Brian O'Keefe in Urgent News of the Past

Urgent news of the past: 1991

Posted on April 26, 2004 by Brian O'Keefe in Urgent News of the Past

Ten years before the terrorist attacks of 2001, the Free Press asked students, “Are you concerned about the threat of terrorist action within the United States?”

Most of the respondents said they were not especially concerned, though a couple expressed mild awareness of the possibility.

Urgent news of the past: 1991

Posted on April 19, 2004 by Brian O'Keefe in Urgent News of the Past

Ten years before the terrorist attacks of 2001, the Free Press asked students, “Are you concerned about the threat of terrorist action within the United States?”

Most of the respondents said they were not especially concerned, though a couple expressed mild awareness of the possibility.

Urgent news of the past: 1978

Posted on April 12, 2004 by Brian O'Keefe in Urgent News of the Past

Maine job prospects bleak, but grads refuse to leave

“Today more than ever, a college graduate is having difficulty securing employment worthy of his title,” began a front-page story in the Feb. 7, 1978 issue of the Free Press. But the analysis that followed conceded that in Maine, this predicament was nothing new.

Photos from 1978

Posted on April 12, 2004 by Brian O'Keefe in Urgent News of the Past

Urgent news of the past: 1994

Posted on April 05, 2004 by Brian O'Keefe in Urgent News of the Past

But Mr. Barber summed up the University’s stance on the ‘Net best one August afternoon. I had asked him about how to gain access to a particular service on the ‘Net which enables users to partake in discourse with minds from around the globe.

Said Barber, “The University does not support this service, however, access is not forbidden either.”